Fewer than 50,000 have registered for insurance on Healthcare.gov, according to reports

View full sizeThis is the original homepage of the healthcare.gov site for the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare

A health insurance industry report says that fewer than 50,000 Americans have signed up for insurance through the Healthcare.gov website, according to a Fox News story.

The Department of Health and Human Services said it could not confirm those numbers, saying the official numbers for those signing up on the website under the Affordable Care Act would be released later this month.

The figure, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, was confirmed by Fox News, according to the story.

HHS officials had refused to say how many people had signed up, or tried to, using the beleaguered website.

Earlier, HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said, "We have always anticipated that initial enrollment numbers would be low and increase over time. And, as we have said, the problems with the website will cause the numbers to be lower than initially anticipated."

Healthcare.gov went live Oct. 1. Because of problems with the site, only six people were able to sign up that day.